I'll tell you this for nothing - My Mother the War Hero

Arts Whakatane is proud to present the Arts On Tour play I'll tell you this for nothing - My Mother the War Hero on Sunday the 5th of September at Gateway theatre at 4 pm. Ticket price is $25 for adults and $5 for students.  It is a tale of war, courage, romance and danger. The play is written and performed by Kate Jason-Smith.

Why did France award the Legion d’Honneur – its highest accolade for exceptional courage to Phyllis, a little known Kiwi woman from Ireland?

About the play

Phyllis JasonSmith was one of only two NZ women ever to have been honoured with France’s highest decoration, the Legion d’Honneur, for bravery in WWII.  And she was my mother.

We grew up on war stories of bombs screaming overhead as she and other QA nurses crawled around the hospital tent on their knees among the constant stream of wounded and dying solders “…the only light our tilly lamps, the only water a barrel outside the tent door.”  Not all her stories were tragic, in fact most had a lighter side, a twist, a punchline.  And then there was the love story, woven through her tale like a ray of hope.  Phyllis was vivacious, courageous, humorous, haunted by the war until the end of her long life.